Usually when we hear about a tablet that’s being marketed towards a younger demographic, they’re highly customized Android tablets with rubber bumpers. Overall, not really something an adult would look twice at for themselves. However, the nabi XD may be just the thing to change that trend.

Even though it’s described as a “tween’s first tablet,” the nabi XD packs some pretty impressive specifications. It runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, packs a 10.1-inch 1366×768 HD IPS display, is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and has a battery that Fuhu claims can last for 10 hours. All of this is priced at $249 with a staggered release window between late December and mid-January. Not bad.

Now before you start considering making this your go-to tablet, there are some things to be aware of. First of all, the nabi XD is not running stock Android. It’s using something called the Kanzi UI. It specializes in widgets and gadgets that dynamically change according to your preferences. There’s also a good chance Google Play won’t come pre-installed. Google Play was not included in the nabi 2. Any games you may want to play will have to come from a third-party store such as the Amazon Appstore.

Another interesting gaming feature with this tablet is something Fuhu calls Battle KINABIs. We’ll apparently take physical figures and sync them to the tablet using NFC and/or Bluetooth. The characters will be able to fight each other and level up. It sounds like Skylanders to me.

All in all, this tablet definitely seems like it can be useful. Hopefully the performance doesn’t suffer.